In production textile mills, a wide variety of yarns are used to produce an array of textile products. Unfortunately, many textile yarns are not easily distinguishable from one another. Therefore, the yarn packages must be carefully labelled or maintained in compartments or racks that are clearly marked.
One approach to handling this problem is to provide yarn carriers with color coded markings or attachments such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,033,489 to Morris. Morris discloses a yarn carrier which includes a color coded bushing inserted into the end of the tube. The bushing includes a flange at the outer end which extends out from the end of the tube to be easily visible. One particular drawback with this arrangement is that the overall length and the inside diameter of the carrier are changed by the addition of the bushing. The change in length or the change in the inside diameter may cause the carrier to be unusable with existing holders and the like, and thus the use of such a carrier may necessitate costly machine changes.
Other proposals for providing color coded indicators to a yarn carrier include U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,026,032, 3,425,149 and 1,858,410. The indicators of these carriers, like Morris above, extend the length of the yarn carrier. As such, these carriers would be unacceptable for similar reasons as discussed above. U.S. Pat. No. 2,026,032 not only extends lengthwise, but also radiates out from the carrier. In some applications, the outside diameter is a critical dimension so this indicator would be unusable for further applications.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a yarn carrier with means for indicating the type of yarn wound thereon and which avoids the drawbacks of the prior art as discussed above.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a yarn carrier which has provision for identifying the yarn wound thereon, and which minimizes inventory costs by providing a removable ring for identifying the yarn. Thus the carriers may be standardized, with only the rings being different.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a yarn carrier including a ring for indicating the type of yarn wound on the carrier and which is received in a manner that does not change the overall length of the carrier, or either the outside diameter or the inside diameter of the carrier.